The ubiquitous availability of unmanned UASs, commonly referred to as “drones” or “UAV's” has resulted in an exponential growth of drone air traffic throughout many parts of the world. With the advent of lighter more efficient batteries and power systems and advanced UAS control systems it has become economically feasible to utilize UASs for many tasks, particularly the routing and delivery of small packages.
Due to this proliferation of UAS air traffic existing air traffic control systems are overburdened and have proven incapable of handling the tracking and routing of many small UASs, particularly in more populous areas and high air traffic corridors. Air traffic control for UASs will become more and more necessary as their use expands since the greater volume of air traffic will cause potential UAS collisions as well as potential passenger plane collisions with UASs.
Accordingly, governmental entities have undertaken to begin design and installation of a variety of air traffic control systems in order to manage the voluminous UAS traffic. For example, in the United States the Federal Aviation Administration is currently studying the implementation of an expanded and integrated air traffic control system for UASs and the potential collection of tolls required to fund the operation of these systems. As a result of these new systems, many governments are considering implementation of UAS tolling systems to collect funds from commercial UAS operators in order to fund the enhanced air traffic control systems required to direct the air traffic. Furthermore, relevant UAS governing bodies have begun a system of registration for UAS operators. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States currently requires all UAS's to be registered and to have a remote pilot certificate.
Tolling systems can take the form of per flight tolls, or tolls proportioned by trip length, or even payload tolls. However, there is currently no available system or method for systematically tracking UASs and reporting their flights to a toll collecting entity in order to collect the tolls.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods of tracking and managing the operation of UASs or drones that enables as user to track a plurality of UASs and report the details of their flight operations to a central entity, for example a governmental agency such as the FAA in order to levy and collect operational tolls.